This article reviews recent contributions to the evidence on, and interpretations of, the long-run growth of the Australian economy. It is noted that several themes currently prominent in growth theory and empirical growth analysis are reflected in the recent literature on the Australian...

The 1890s depression in Australia was both deeper and more prolonged than those in Argentina, Canada or New Zealand. In the Australian literature the severity of the depression is explained as resulting from the magnitude and speculative nature of the preceding boom and the impact of a severe...

This paper reports a debate on the 'big questions' and 'research challenges' facing economic history in Australia and New Zealand. Noting the changes in research direction that occurred in the discipline over the past 50 years, and the resource challenges it currently faces, it identifies many...

Examination of special cases assists understanding of the mechanics of long-run economic growth more generally. Australia and California are two economies having the rare distinction of achieving 150 years of sustained high and rising living standards for rapidly expanding populations. They are...

This study uses state-level variation in labor productivity levels at twenty-year intervals between 1880 and 1980 to examine the relative importance of institutional and geographical influences in explaining observed and persistent differences in standards of living over time and across regions....

The recovery from the 1890s depression in Australia was prolonged, and economic growth 1895-1913 was below that in the comparable settler economies of Argentina and Canada. Why? Australia’s hesitant initial recovery is typically attributed to the imbalances in the economy resulting from the...